Help me Pick an MP3 Player.
 

Recently got in the market to buy an MP3 player and have come across two that I really like. Basically its come down to an issue of money as far as I can see.
I like the RCA Lyra 40 gig and basically can get it cheaper then the IPOD. Thats where y'all come in. Looking for personal experience, IPOD or Lyra let me know what y'all think.

Have you loked at the new Toshiba ones?

They run up to 60Gb and come with a colour screen - and STILL cost less than an iPod...

(sorry for making your task harder ;))

Do you know anyone who has either loaded up, so you can try it out? See how easily you can get to a specific song, or cue up a specific list of music. See if you can do basic operations without looking at the player. Basically, how does it fit you? I'm an iPod user, but that is because it fits me.

I'll tell you, I'm totally freaking delighted with my iRiver h340. It's 40 gigs. It's UI isn't nearly as slick as the iPod's, but the sound quality is vastly better. I hear stuff on this thing that I've never heard before in the very same mp3 files.

2" color screen. Upgrade to the latest firmware and it plays AVIs--on my last trip I watched Sin City on it during my flight. Plenty of battery time. Not quite as small as an iPod, but still very pocketable. It's a very sweet little unit.

You gentlemen sure don't make anything easier. iRiver sounds interesting and someone mentioned a Creative Zen.
Unfortunatly don't really know anyone with one that I could access but am looking for some experiences maybe y'all have had.

I have a rio carbon and an ipod (click wheel). The carbon is fairly easy to navigate, looks and feels great, is somewhat hard to add playlists to (from a mac via itunes). The ipod is much cooler to use though. The user interface (ie. the touch-wheel) is more fun to use, and its a piece of cake to add playlists. Plus its a lot louder than the carbon. If I had to choose only one, it would be the ipod.

I also have an iriver, and have to agree with ratbastid about the great sound quality.

take a quick trip to your local best buy/ future shop/ frys/ what ever large chain electronics store and take a look at what's on display.....:-)

I've been trying to choose between an Ipod and the Creative Zen Jukebox myself.

The Zen is about 100 bucks cheaper for the 60gig version, doesn't have a color screen (I'll just be using it for MP3's, so no big deal), but I can't find a place in town with one on display for me to play with.

I'll keep searching, but online reviews say both are pretty sweet.

I just upgraded my 3G 30GB iPod to a 4G 60GB iPod with color screen. I use it mostly in the car, so I want to be able to see the song title with a quick glance. The color screen is also double the resolution; the clarity is amazing.

Bah, now you're tempting me!

If I can't find a Zen to check out in person, I might go with the Ipod just because I know that it's at least pretty decent. The Zen may have been better...but I'll never know.

I'll keep trying to find one to play with for a few minutes though. In a town with all these college students, somebody has to have one I can fiddle with for a song or 2.

Alright basically I have made my decision on the iRiver PMP-140, if I am gonna putting down some cash for this thing might as well make it worth it. It around $350 its got basically everything I want in a piece of electronics that I can carry around.
So comments, before I make that fateful swipe with my Visa...what y'all think?

Yes! Iriver is the way to go.. you can watch videos, the sound is amazing..
Whatever you do, don't get an iPod. Check out on eBay, they sell new H340s

Iriver has never disappointed me or anyone I know. I think you should go for it.
www.misticriver.net is a forum for iriver enthusiasts, you can probably find a lot of stuff about it there..firmware upgrades, problems solved, and such. :thumbsup:

Just chiming in to say that I'd avoid the Creative Zen Touch. I've got a 20GB one and although I love it to bits and it's never failed me, the touchpad doesn't feel sturdy. In cold or humid weather, or if your hands are damp or sweaty, you'll have a really hard time selecting what you want with the Zen Touch touchpad. I like good old buttons that click when you press them.

Yeah...I'd avoid Creative in general...my cousin had the mico, which stopped working 6 months after he got it...he contacted the site and changed it for a 5GB Iriver h10 :D
Something else not to get from creative is their portable media player (pmp) basically they are Window's bitches and won't let you play most videos, you have to buy the movies, you can't read any DivX...so don't get it.

I'm happy as a clam with my Rio Karma. Excellent sound quality, decent battery life and support for a lot of formats. (Ogg and FLAC among others)
Seems like Rio has stopped (Or is about to) stop producing it though.

iRiver has the clavus seal of approval.

And thats all I need. :crazy:

Sub Zero, remember to give us the debriefing once you receive the goods...how was it? satisfied, no regrets?

This might help (or hinder) your decision.
Goodbye, Rio.
http://playlistmag.com/news/2005/08/26/rio/index.php

Now, let's all lower our iPod volume to half power in remembrance.

Can I jump in? I got an iRiver h10 for my birthday. I've had to reformat it three times from scratch (every time I added music), it won't put my music into the "music" section, and before I shoot it, maybe I'd better figure some things out. Should this be this difficult? I've stared at the iRiver website for hours trying to figure out what is wrong with it (or me). But it seems excessively complicated with my laptop refusing to admit it knows what this thing is. Biznatch, I tried to access your above-mentioned website for guidance, and ended up with arabic porn.

I was looking at exchanging it for an iPod mini 4 gig just for ease of use, but now I'm not sure. I have XP professional with SP1, not 2. I've been told the iPod mini may or may not work. Oh, electronic gurus... help?

I'm sorry about the website, it was actually www.misticriver.net
And apparently the h10 is the least favorite amongst the iriver crowd. For your problems, I really don't know, because I have never experienced anything like that with my H320.. :confused:

Apparently, it's a bad hard drive... according to the quasi-intelligent geeks at my particular neighborhood Best Buy. Waiting for the receipt to be faxed from my financially-challenged parents to get a replacement. If it still won't work with my work laptop, they're willing to give me an exchange for a different product. Might need to upgrade to the H320... they were pretty sure the iPod Mini wouldn't work w/o SP2.

No worries about the website, Biznatch. Kinda interesting... :D

i'm going to be selective about this post and choose the words 'i love it to bits' amen to that. I've had mine a little over 6 months now and love it, especially the the fact it just keeps on playing, i've just been travelling and what a delight it was not to have to charge it every place i say a plug socket. A few days i had to take train journeys for 12 hours and still it carried on playing and that on it not even being fully charged. Who wants a colour screen anyway, its not as if you are walking around reading the name all day. It's all about the music.

It's a sad day indeed. I'll cry myself to sleep hugging my Karma tonight...

Yes, however my 8 hour long plane trip was greatly entertained by stand up comedy videos, and movies... A video compatible mp3 player can't be a bad thing. iriver h320 all the way :D

I'm pretty tempted with an iaudio - http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/iaudio/g3/

Plays MP3, WMA, ASF,WAV (include 48KHZ Stereo) and OGG [oh yeah ! *has a couple GB of OGG music*] formats
voice recorder
FM tuner
works with mac/linux/windows

- plus, it looks sexy.....
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...&s=pc&n=507846
I'm surprised, even with a price tag of $350 for 30 GB, how this managed to stay under the radar....
Even the reviews on amazon and epinions are positive
Anyone ever dealt with these before ? Heck, I think I'll ditch my 4GB ipod mini [still unopened, free after rebate] for this instead....

catcha back on the flipside,
keyshawn

My friend got that, and he was hesitating between getting the h320 and that... and eventually went for that. he informed himself and did alot of research before going for it so I think its a perfectly good choice.
As to why it stays under the radar, Apple is just stealing the whole show with their over mediatized personal audio products (which sadly, aren't as good as the rest of the stuff that's out there)
So yeah, tell us how it works out for you.

N o - B r a i n e r . . .

iPod.
They lead while everyone else follows. Install iTunes for free on you 'puter and live the good, easy life. :thumbsup:

After five days of fighting with my iriver h10 (both of them) and trying so hard to convince the little bugger that I promise I have the one and only program that will send the music over installed on my computer, I gave up.

I returned the little twit and got an iPod mini 4 gig. I plugged it in, put a CD in my computer and have been smiling ever since. I have to admit, the sound is a little lower quality, but my stress level has markedly decreased. Best Buy was on their knees to make me happy and I've still got $35 credit after returning the iriver and product replacement plan (GODSEND!) and getting my iPod mini and that PRP. New headphones to improve the sound, and I'm golden.

I got my wife an iPod for Mother's DAy last year and we adore it beyond words. And this from someone who was going to get soething.. anything but an iPod. But we tried a efw and picked the best.

No...not a no-brainer... That's what you end up thinking from seeing it everywhere... but iPod represents more expensive, lesser quality merchandise..
How many stories of iPods breaking down do I here almost on a daily basis? All my friends are now wishing they had listened to me when either their batteries are drained after 2 hours, or plain don't work..
While I'm here playing perfect video, awesome sound quality, with a range of encoding compatibility thats amazing (mp3, wma, ogg, the list goes on...) internal mic, line in for direct encoding into mp3 or wav...Working really good, the batteries are holding great, im watchin hours of video on end without having to recharge the batterie..
i'm sorry, but what I did is a no brainer. 250 dollars, Iriver h320.

I've been using an Archos 20Gb FM Recorder Jukebox for the last 3 years, and I love it to death. I pulled the 20Gb HDD out, and replaced it with a 60Gb, but now even that isnt enough. Plus after 3 years the battery life is awful, and replacing them seems more trouble than its worth. I'm checking out the PQI mPack p800 80Gb at the moment - all the reviews seem to be very positive...

You hear more stories, because there are more iPods. Simple matter of numbers :) fredweena, a few posts above, posted the problems he has with his iRiver. The newer iPods have far fewer problems, and the new Nano is an awesome machine. Plus, you can run Linux on them.

I'm thinking of getting the iRiver H340, but I have some questions:

Are there any limitations on the txt files? And how easy is it to read?
Can it display Chinese?

Also, is a 3 months warranty enough? (Because if I get it from a parallel importer, it's about NZ$200 cheaper.)

Alright folks reporting back from the Land of MP3's and here is what I have to say.

http://www.clubic.com/photo/00116468.jpg

I ended up going with the iRiver H10 20 gig and so far have been very pleased with it. The sound quality is just amazing and although some people have said this before I can honestly say that I am hearing new things in songs I have heard at least a hundred times already.
The control is kinda intuitive with the the middle bar being used for volume when a song is playing and to scroll up and down when in your library. Skipping and stopping functions are controlled by the two buttons on the side and yes there is exponential control on the slide bar in the middle.
Although you can just open up the player and copy and paste music into it, using WMP helps to organize files better and places them into a neat little category for almost instant access.
Battery life I am getting about 16 or so hours fully charged and playing music. There is text and image viewing. Voice and radio recording and the earphones are really nice although I'm not a big fan of ear buds.
A couple of cons though. There is not a detachable battery for it so basically whatever power you have on it charged is it. The power connection is usb based, and the screen though very vivid and clear is kinda small.
All in all I love my new toy and can say its worth the money I put down for it which was about $250.

Ok - so my 40 gig HP/Apple Ipod and deader than dead - and HP is being less than helpful about getting it fixed - and Apple says it's HP's problem not theirs.. (lovely - -simply lovely) so I'm going to be spending money I don't want to spend on a new MP3 player... The one thing that is keeping me with Ipod is that I have a Bose Sounddock that i love... and it's basically a paperweight right now - unless one of the other brands of MP3 players fit in it.. anyone know of that answer?

any suggestions for a new Ipod ( the nanos just don't have enough space for my music collection)

Hm, i don't any off the top of my head...seeing as how the connector uses the iDock(or whatever) format. However, there might be some adapters to convert that to an audio jack. :confused: